On December 15, 2021, the US Senate overwhelmingly voted for a version of the National Defence Authorisation Act, or NDAA, that authorises $778 billion in defence spending—$25 billion (a 5 percent increase from previous one) more than requested by President Joe Biden—sending the measure to the White House for the president Joe Biden’s signature. It’s bigger than those passed during the Vietnam and Korean War years, and bigger than Ronald Reagan’s military build up.
The bill acquired strong support from both Democrats and Republicans for the annual legislation setting policy for the Department of Defence. The House of Representatives passed it by 363-70 votes. While the US Senate passed it by 89-10 votes.
The 2022 NDAA includes $300 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative; over which the US and NATO are in a fierce dispute with Russia which provides support to Ukraine’s armed forces, includes $4 billion for the European Defence Initiative and proposes $150 million for Baltic security cooperation. It does not include a provision that would force Biden to impose sanctions over the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline to bring Russian gas directly to Germany. The measure’s supporters argue that the pipeline would be harmful to European allies. Biden’s fellow Democrats control both the House of Representatives and Senate. The White House has said administration officials support sanctions if Russia invades Ukraine, but not provisions that could threaten trans-Atlantic ties.
On China, the bill includes $7.1 billion for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative and a statement of congressional support for the defence of Taiwan, as well as a ban on the Department of Defence procuring products produced with forced labour from China’s Xinjiang region. Also, the bill states that the naval force of the island of Taiwan should be invited to participate in the US-led Rim of the Pacific exercise (RIMPAC) conducted in 2022. The United States has labelled China’s treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang as genocide, lawmakers have been pushing a ban on imports of products made with forced labour from Uyghurs, and Washington recently announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, citing “egregious” Chinese human rights abuses. China dismisses the genocide charge as a slanderous assertion about conditions in Xinjiang.
Two opinions came to the forefront during the discussion of the aforementioned bill. On the one hand, NDAA’s passage in the Senate spurred protests from progressives who have been calling for decreasing US military spending in order to free up more funds for domestic priorities. The US is by far the largest military spender in the world, with a Pentagon budget totalling more than double what Russia and China combined allocate to defence annually. “We ended the longest war in US history, yet Congress just passed a $778 billion defence budget—more than the military budgets of the next 11 countries combined,” Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, wrote on Twitter. “Don’t tell me we can’t afford to fight poverty, cancel student debt, pass paid leave, and defeat the climate crisis.”
But supporters of defence spending argued that the US military should be a priority in a world where China—and to a lesser extent, Russia—are on the rise. They note that China has been increasing its military budget, reaching $209 billion in 2021 in a nearly 7 percent uptick from the year before. While that amount is still far below the American defence budget, foreign policy hawks in Washington say Beijing gets more for its money because of lower pay for workers and cheaper material costs. The US defence bill itself contains numerous China-specific provisions, as well as increased funding for research, development, test and evaluation (RDTE) that is seen as an effort to modernise the military to counter Chinese technology. The NDAA also requires Biden to develop a “grand strategy” towards Beijing.
It is still not clear what Beijing’s position on Ukraine is, but China has come under similar international scrutiny over human rights issues, and territorial claims on the democratically self-ruled island of Taiwan. This year, while Moscow has sent troops to the border with Ukraine, Beijing has increased military activity near Taiwan. Official reports from both Beijing and Moscow portrayed the two leaders’ virtual meeting after the US and the other Group of 7 major economies condemned Russia’s military build-up and “aggressive rhetoric” towards Ukraine, as yet another friendly conversation that strengthened the countries’ relationship. However, “neither of them specifically endorsed the position of the other with regard to their points of sensitivity but if the pressure continues from the US along with its allies, the two sides will start supporting each other militarily. The indication of it is, the first ever Sino-Russian joint patrolling drill that was mainly a power show after the AUKUS deal.